Wife! Mom of 5! SharePoint Consultant. Beachbody coach!

Month: March 2015

I am trying something new, started yesterday. I have trained my body to eat every 2-3 hours. There are a couple problems with this, but I won’t address any of them other than the fact that I am constantly eating. Still managing my calories and what I’m eating, but it’s still ALL THE TIME! And it never fails that I’m still hungry or have the munchies around 8pm every night. Eating this late, right before you’re going to bed and your metabolism is slowing down, is not good for you belly.

So I am trying intermittent fasting to replace my current lifestyle. I am still learning about it; and boy do I have lots to learn! But the high level summary is that you eat within a specific block of time, throughout the day, and nothing else on your of hours. This type of eating is supposed to help your body burn more fat as you are allowing your body the time it needs to fully digest and use what you ate the day before.

Say, for example, you eat breakfast at 8am. Your last meal would be at 4pm. Here’s the cool thing, there is no set clock on intermittent fasting! This means its customizable so it can fit into any lifestyle. Ideally, I think, you want to wait until later in the day to have your first meal. For me, personally, I am going for the 10am to 6pm block of time for eating. So far, over the last 2 days, it’s been satisfying. (I got a little hungry early today so I think I ate at 9:45am. I really don’t think 15 minutes is going to make a difference. I could be wrong. But I’m okay with it for day #2.)

See that ^, that salad? Looks delicious, right?! Eating clean can be fun and quite tasty!

There are a couple of things to take into consideration – or remember – if you ever seriously contemplate this type of lifestyle. Did you notice that word? “Lifestyle”? This is a lifestyle, not a fad, not a diet, not a detox, not a lose weight quick “thing”. A lifestyle that you adopt as part of your every day routine for the rest of your life. Just like clean eating. It doesn’t benefit you to do this for a week. It has a compound effect. Over time it increases your health, energy, confidence and overall appearance. Lifestyle choices are permanent, not temporary. I am probably repeating myself, but it’s important to fully grasp that. To change you life it can’t be temporary.

The other thing to consider is that it is super easy to implement. Don’t wake up tomorrow morning and just start eating within and 8 hour window (well, you could, I don’t think it would have a negative effect, but it might be a little more difficult to stick with). So, week 1 – for example – try 10 or 11 hours. Or, if that’s your normal window maybe try 9. Then week 2 shave off another hour. Then, if you’re not already at 8 hours, shave off another hour on the following week.

What you’re doing is training your body. Note how at the start of this post I said I had trained my body to eat every 2-3 hours. Trust me, your body gets used to your eating patterns and they are not easy to break. It takes time and consistency. So if your body is yelling at you that it’s hungry, it might not be. It might just be part of your routine that you’ll have to work through. It only takes 21 days to create a habit. If you can get through that time period, you’re good. Keep that goal in mind.

My all-time favorite meal of the day, and most nutritious!

Okay, done rambling. So, on top of this new lifestyle, I am also still focusing on clean eating. Yes, another lifestyle choice. I don’t have to quit one to try the other. Pretty cool in my opinion, makes my life a little easier. So, for now, I am simply working towards my 8hr eating window with clean foods. I don’t see a reason this won’t work so I’m super excited. (Especially considering I am still recovering from surgery and can’t workout for – at least – another 4 weeks. Eating right will keep from losing any progress during my down time!)

If you’ve ever heard of BulletProof coffee, you either love it, hate it, or just flat out think it’s a little strange. (lol) I drank it for quite a while and loved (still love) it. But, 4 cups of coffee a day with that many calories tends to leave you a little hungry. Or, it did me anyway.

Thanks to a wonderful friend, I have found an alternative. Brew a cup of coffee (I use my Keurig), add 1t coconut oil (personally use the flavored), and a few drops of vanilla flavored sweet drops (stevia).